John Tanton: Growing Need for Immigration Reform

Tanton Video Interview Interview 2006 - Topic 8

Dr. John Tanton discusses immigration numbers in 1979 (about 290,000 per year) and how numbers have increased dramatically since then. He discusses Sen. Kennedy's visa lottery, acceptance of refugees, brain drain, and population stabilization.

Initial efforts to focus on demographics and population numbers failed to resonate with the masses, so immigration reform promoters began to focus on the social consequences of mass immigration. Dr. Tanton notes that at the time of this interview, US population had doubled to 300 million people, as opposed to the 150 million when he was in High School - and the US Census Bureau projects a mid-century population of 410 million, unless we change course.

Dr. Tanton also points out that in terms of dollar cost, we are now an importer of food, and asks where the food is going to come from for the next 100 million people. He discusses demographic momentum (population momentum), and how it takes years to reduce population numbers after replacement fertility is achieved.